Abstract

This paper presents the concept of an In situ Fabricator, a mobile robot intended for on-site manufacturing, assembly and digital fabrication. We present an overview of a prototype system, its capabilities, and highlight the importance of high-performance control, estimation and planning algorithms for achieving desired construction goals. Next, we detail on two architectural application scenarios: first, building a full-size undulating brick wall, which required a number of repositioning and autonomous localisation manoeuvres. Second, the mesh mould concrete process, which shows that an In situ Fabricator in combination with an innovative digital fabrication tool can be used to enable completely novel building technologies. Subsequently, important limitations of our approach are discussed. Based on that, we identify the need for a new type of robotic actuator, which facilitates the design of novel full-scale construction robots. We provide brief insight into the development of this actuator and conclude the paper with an outlook on the next-generation In situ Fabricator, which is currently under development.

Keywords

This research was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation through the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Digital Fabrication (Agreement #51NF40_141853), a Professorship Award to Jonas Buchli (Agreement #PP00P2_138920) and the Research Equipment Grant #206021_150856. The authors would like to thank Norman Hack, Nitish Kumar and Alexander N. Walzer for providing details on the Mesh Mould process. Special thanks also go to the NCCR technicians Michael Lyrenmann and Philippe Fleischmann for their technical support on IF1.

References

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